2022 in Review: McHenry County’s top crime stories of the year

A first-degree murder conviction in a fatal car crash near Hebron, a “road rage incident” with shots were fired near McHenry, a lifetime sentence in a 20-year cold case and a Bull Valley millionaire released on parole were among the crime stories that hit McHenry County.

Here are 10 of McHenry County’s top crime stories of the year:

First-degree murder conviction in fatal crash

In November, following an emotional bench trial, McHenry County Judge Michael Coppedge ruled that William P. Bishop, 44, of Chicago, was guilty but mentally ill when he purposely crashed into an oncoming vehicle, killing its driver.

Instead of killing himself, as he claimed voices were telling him to do, Bishop killed Jason Miller, 41, of McHenry, and critically injured his passenger, Rory Fiali, 58, also of McHenry, in the crash near Hebron.

In addition to first-degree murder, Judge Michael Coppedge found Bishop guilty but mentally ill on two counts each of aggravated battery and aggravated driving under the influence in connection with the May 18, 2020, crash near Hebron.

He faces 20 to 60 years in prison when sentenced Jan. 26.

Wage investigation into Papa G’s in Huntley

As part of a federal wage investigation into Papa G’s Restaurant in Huntley, a temporary restraining order was issued after federal investigators accused the owners of retaliating and intimidating workers cooperating during the investigation.

Papa G’s Restaurant owners Steve and Rick Tsakalios were accused of asking workers to not give investigators any information, telling one employee repeatedly he did not have to speak to investigators, continually entering the area where the interviews were taking place and threatening to find out what employees said, according to the complaint filed in federal court.

The Department of Labor was investigating the restaurant’s employment and pay practices from Feb. 3, 2019, through Jan. 20, 2022, according to court records.

The department found the restaurant owners allegedly failed to pay eight of its employees the required one-and-a-half overtime rate when they worked more than 40 hours in a week, according to the complaint and a memorandum submitted in support of the restraining order request.

The department found the restaurant owed $119,808 to be split among eight employees. The case is still in litigation, U.S. Department of Labor spokesman Scott Allen said this week.

Crystal Lake stabbing results in 15 years in prison

A former Crystal Lake Elementary School District 47 physical education teacher was sentenced to 15 years in prison in May after pleading guilty to two counts of attempted murder, according to McHenry County prosecutors and court records.

In 2019, Charles A. Hightower Jr., 41, of Rockton was charged with stabbing three people at a bonfire in a North Shore neighborhood of Crystal Lake, according to authorities at the time.

In exchange for his negotiated plea, additional charges of three counts of aggravated battery were dismissed against Hightower, who entered a plea deal rather than going to trial.

The cuts to one of the men left his internal organs exposed and required his immediate transportation to the emergency room, according to the indictment. The other man who was stabbed multiple times in the torso was older than 60 and also required immediate emergency care.

Life sentence for woman charged in 20-year cold murder case

A former McHenry County woman, described as a “monster” by prosecutors and her victim’s family members, was sentenced to life in prison in May without the possibility of parole for the “barbaric” killing of a 23-year-old Harvard woman.

Linda Sue La Roche, 67, formerly known as Linda Sue Johnson, was convicted in March in Wisconsin of the first-degree intentional homicide and hiding the body of Peggy Lynn Johnson-Schroeder.

La Roche – who formerly lived in homes in Lakemoor and Bull Valley, made a living as a nurse and owned a business that cared for jail inmates – was sentenced to an additional five years in prison for hiding a corpse.

Johnson-Schroeder’s remains were found in a cornfield in 1999 in Raymond, Wisconsin, and went unidentified for 20 years. The community of Racine County buried her as Jane Doe. In 2019, after a call was made by an anonymous tipster, her true identity was discovered and so was her killer’s, authorities have said.

La Roche has filed a petition for post-conviction relief, which will be considered at a February hearing.

Court supervision, community service for two Jehovah’s Witnesses elders who failed to report child abuse

Two Jehovah’s Witnesses elders were sentenced in March to one year of court supervision, 10 hours of community service and $250 in fines for failing to report that a congregant was sexually abusing a child.

Michael M. Penkava, 73, and Colin B. Scott, 89, who have served as Jehovah’s Witnesses elders for decades, each were found guilty March 18 of a class A criminal misdemeanor charge of violating the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act.

Penkava testified he believed the advice he received from Jehovah’s Witnesses world headquarters in New York in 2006 that he was not required to report to authorities statements about the child being sexually abused to be “trustworthy and accurate.”

Rather than reporting the allegations to police that Arturo Hernandez-Pedraza, a congregant, was sexually abusing the child, the matter was handled by a judicial committee of three elders through prayer and spiritual guidance.

The girl reported 12 years later to Penkava that the abuse never stopped, and he then took her to the Crystal Lake Police Department. Hernandez-Pedraza, 44, was convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison in 2019.

The McHenry County case was watched closely by an investigator from the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office who regularly sat in the courtroom during the hearings. The local case played a role in criminal charges filed in October against four Jehovah’s Witnesses members in Pennsylvania accused of sexually abusing 19 children in their congregations, McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally said.

“Our investigation and prosecution pulled the veil back on the grossly inverted manner in which allegations were handled by the Jehovah’s, where the interests of not embarrassing the church were elevated over the interests of child victims,” Kenneally said.

Crystal Lake man charged with attempted murder after attack involving hatchet, hammer

A Crystal Lake man was charged with two counts of attempted murder of his estranged wife in March after he allegedly attacked her with a hatchet and a hammer in her apartment while their toddler was present.

Mark Alex, 58, being held in the McHenry County jail without a cash bond, was deemed by a McHenry County judge to be a “clear and present threat” to the woman.

Alex also is charged with aggravated domestic battery and endangering the life of a child.

The woman, who was 36 at the time of the attack, had filed for divorce from Alex in February 2021 and sought multiple orders of protection against him in the preceding months. On that afternoon, with no current order of protection in place, she said, she allowed Alex to visit their child.

Before attacking her, he showed her the weapons, said “I bought this for you” and “I’m going to kill you,” and attacked her as she pleaded for her life, according to documents filed in the McHenry County courthouse.

Alex is due back in court Jan. 24.

55 years for Springfield man convicted of fatally shooting McHenry County sheriff’s deputy

A Springfield man convicted of fatally shooting McHenry County Sheriff’s Deputy Jacob Keltner was sentenced in April to 55 years in prison.

Floyd E. Brown, 43, was found guilty of second-degree murder in April by a federal jury in Rockford. He also was found guilty of attempted second-degree murder for shooting at the door of his hotel room while three marshals – Michael Schulte, Michael Flannery and Dan Kramer – stood on the other side.

Keltner and the other marshals were working as part of a special U.S. Marshals Service task force on the morning of March 7, 2019, attempting to serve Brown with an arrest warrant at the Extended Stay America hotel in Rockford.

Had he been found guilty of first-degree murder, which the jury had the option of, he would have faced a mandatory life sentence, Judge Matthew Kennelly said.

Brown is required to serve 85% of his sentence and would be on mandatory supervised release for five years after his release.

Outside the courthouse following the daylong sentencing hearing, Keltner’s father, Howard Keltner, said he was angry that Brown was not sentenced to life for killing his son.

He told reporters that in handing down less than life in prison, “the judge slapped my son right in the face.”

In sentencing Brown, Kennelly acknowledged statements made by Brown, his sister and his attorneys that he had a tough upbringing marred by domestic violence, poverty and living in the foster system. Kennelly said though he wouldn’t call him a “monster,” he does think he’s a threat to society.

Bull Valley millionaire, sentenced to 20 years for the attempted murder, released on parole

A Bull Valley millionaire, sentenced to 20 years in 2007 for the attempted murder of his wife of nearly 43 years, was released from the Dixon Correctional Facility in February and remains on parole, according to prison records.

Billy J. Cox, 81, was found guilty after a 17-day jury trial of the attempted murder and aggravated domestic battery of his wife, then Carolyn Cox. He was released from prison on Feb. 25, according to a VINE alert system sent by the Illinois Department of Corrections.

He served the required 85% of his 20-year sentence. Cox’s exact whereabouts were unclear and attempts to reach a former attorney were unsuccessful.

At the time of the attack against his wife, the couple was living what, by all accounts, appeared to be a happy, lavish country club lifestyle. The couple had a net worth of about $15 million, lived in a 15,000-square-foot mansion on a beautiful, 11-acre wooded lot nestled along Bull Valley Road, according to court testimony. They had successful grown children and grandchildren, living off the wealth they created by building their company, Exacto Inc.

Carolyn Cox went on to remarry, changing her name to Carolyn Mahoney, and became a crusader helping others who are victims of domestic women. She died July 29, 2019, at the age of 77.

‘Road rage incident’ results in attempted murder charges

A Waukegan man faces Class X attempted murder charges after he allegedly shot at another vehicle in April during what the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office has called a “road rage incident.”

Juan Colon, 27, has been held without bond in the McHenry County jail since his arrest in June, more than a month after police say he shot at another vehicle at about 12:30 p.m. April 24 in the 800 block of Partridge Road, near South River Road, outside the city of McHenry.

Colon is charged with attempted first-degree murder and being an armed habitual criminal, both Class X felonies, as well as three counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm and unlawful use or possession of a firearm by a felon, according to the criminal complaint.

He is due back in court Jan. 12.

Wrongful death lawsuit filed against estate of Algonquin man who died of COVID-19 while awaiting trial for murder

In January, the daughter of a woman stabbed to death in her Schaumburg apartment by an Algonquin man she was dating filed a wrongful death lawsuit against his estate.

Anthony Prate, who was charged with first-degree murder in Cook County, was out on bond after posting $300,000 cash bail, 10% of his total $3 million bond, on Jan. 6, 2020, and living with his mother on an ankle monitor in Tinley Park when he contracted COVID-19. He died in December 2021.

Prate, 57, who worked as an eye doctor in Lake Zurich and Barrington, was accused of stabbing Malgorzata “Margaret” Daniel, 48, nearly 30 times following a dinner party on Nov. 23, 2019, court records show.

Daniel’s daughter, Dominika Daniel, 29, of Itasca, is named as the independent administrator of her estate. The civil lawsuit she filed seeks more than $75,000 in damages, according to the lawsuit.

Since filing the initial complaint in January, attorneys have filed an amended complaint adding to the lawsuit Prate’s sister, Donna Meyer, and his adult children as defendants.

Attorneys, in part, allege that between Nov. 26, 2019, and Jan. 5, 2020, Prate – on recorded phone calls made from Cook County jail after Daniel’s death – directed the “dissipation” of more than a million dollars in assets to avoid liability from any future civil lawsuit, according to the amended complaint filed in June.

Daniel’s death in 2019 reignited an interest in the death of Prate’s wife, Bridget Prate, who was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital following a car crash in Lake in the Hills in 2011.